ARNO SAFRAN INTERVIEW, PART TWO

GREG BENNICK: Now I'm curious about how you tied that [your passion for music] into numismatics too because you said that you do the same thing with numismatics. Do you mean that you tried to get numismatics to be something more accessible for say, young numismatists or collectors somehow?

ARNO SAFRAN: It's hard for the young people today, because we live in a total…I mean most of the people that are serious collect a lot of stuff that comes out of a mint, you know all the stuff that's coming out. Because all of the coins that we have are no longer silver or gold. I mean you can get silver and gold from the mint, but that's not coins… and the stuff that's used as far as coins today is probably getting change, getting change out. You know most people use the cards like I do. I don't spend a dime. I take my card out when I go to the supermarket and things of that nature and that's sort of a strange thing.

But, if I see a nice quarter - remember that we now have the new quarters which are terrific - I save them up a little bit, just because I like the design on it and the fact that many women that are on it. But they're not rare. I mean it's my own personal enjoyment to see that kind of thing, that women are getting a real break on the on the reverses of the quarters today.

GREG BENNICK: Sure.

ARNO SAFRAN: And, so I enjoy that, even though it's not worth more than 25 cents. I enjoy it.

GREG BENNICK: Now where were your, ultimately where were your passions with collecting itself. You weren't a dealer as much as you were a collector. So, you were focused on specific series more than others? I think that Barber coinage and Seated coinage. Am I right in that?

ARNO SAFRAN: Yeah I was never a dealer. I was lucky in New Jersey. We had a tremendous amount of dealers scattered all over the state. And that you know back then, the coins were probably considered as expensive to what the economy was as they are now today. But you could get some great stuff, you know in New Jersey at that time and of course, that was the same thing for New York City and Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Now, when you go down here, when I came down here it's you know, it was all you know, dollars, that's all they wanted to collect, was dollars you know, Morgan dollars.

But now it's changed, they collect everything now. I mean they're not, they're not like they used to be. They're much more widespread and the articles I write based on the fact of having a purpose. If you collect a set, even if it's without the gold, you know five or six coins and they all look pretty damn good and you know, I think it makes an impression on them. Plus, I tell them who the president might have been at that time and what was going on and when I give a special program, which is the PowerPoint program, I use a lot of politics in it. Not serious politics, I don't say, "Vote for this guy," not kind of that crap. Who was president at the time, what was going on in the country, who were the people, how they dressed at that time. I'll show slides of that, along with the coins.

GREG BENNICK: The website that I found that has your PowerPoint presentations on it is so extensive, meaning I thought, "Oh, okay, great. I found a PowerPoint. Wait a minute. I found another. Wait, there's a whole list of them!" And then you start going down the list, and there's dozens of them. So, you've given so many presentations that combine history and numismatics and insights about grading, and there's all sorts of things. It's fantastic.

ARNO SAFRAN: Well, it's part of my, as I said, being a college professor earlier. Before that I was a professor of elementary school children from the age of first grade all the way up to fifth grade and sixth grade, going all the way back to the 19, I guess, 60s or 70s. 1960s, I think. But I enjoyed little kids, too. I used to play Aaron Copland's music for the little kids.

GREG BENNICK: And how was the response to that?

ARNO SAFRAN: Yeah, and their response was that they loved it.

GREG BENNICK: I'm so glad.

ARNO SAFRAN: Because it was the stories that they liked. Copland was a marvelous composer. And so, I was able to do certain things which made me feel good and made them feel good. The parents loved that. They loved the fact that - because I lived in Princeton, New Jersey at the time - and the parents, you know, were pretty uppered - they lived in New Jersey, and especially in Princeton, where there was a lot of money in those days.

GREG BENNICK: Of course.

ARNO SAFRAN: And we didn't get much more than a teacher's salary. We lived in a house that was divided with other people. So, it was not what you call the highest level. But, the kids loved me and their parents loved me, too.

GREG BENNICK: So great. Now, do you have a favorite presentation of the ones you've given? Or are there ones that you remember as being your favorites?

ARNO SAFRAN: One of my favorites is the coins the grandfather used. My grandfather, Charlie, was born in 1875. And he used to give us a quarter, a Washington quarter, in the late 1930s, if we were a good boy or a good girl…grandchild. And he never had a three-cent piece or a one-dollar gold coin. But I wasn't a collector back then, so I didn't ask him. He died in 1958. And I was not collecting coins back then at that time.

My father grounded me when I was 14, He brought me a low-graded 1857 cent. And it was probably a Good grade. He'd found it in a gum machine in New York subway station. He worked in downtown Manhattan. And it made me feel, like I said, like… look at Lincoln could have used this coin! And I started collecting then. I found a beautiful dime in - it was known as Gimbel's Department Store, which is closed now. Back in 1947 or 1948 or 1949 around that period of time. And it was a dime of 1825, graded XF, no XF45 or any of that stuff. It had beautiful toning, and it cost me four dollars and 50 cents. This is about the 10th time I bought some coins. And he said, how much did you pay for it? And I said, four dollars and 50 cents. And he said, you're grounded. You're only getting a two-dollar allowance.

He was very, he was very conservative. You know, he just don't understand that. And I didn't start collecting again until the 1976, the 200th anniversary that got me. But I still have that coin. And it's now an AU 53, according to PCGS. But, you know, PCGS. But it's nicer than what they called it. I think it's better than that. And not only that, I think it's worth a thousand dollars than 750 or 800. It's gorgeous. I still have it.

About the Interviewer
Greg Bennick (www.gregbennick.com) is a keynote speaker and long time coin collector with a focus on major mint error coins. Have ideas for other interviewees? Contact him anytime on the web or via instagram @minterrors.

To watch the complete video, see:
Arno Safran Interviewed for the NNP by Greg Bennick (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/641275)

To read the complete transcript, see:
Arno Safran Interviewed for the NNP by Greg Bennick (Transcript) (https://nnp.wustl.edu/library/book/641274)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
ARNO SAFRAN INTERVIEW, PART ONE (https://www.coinbooks.org/v27/esylum_v27n36a19.html)

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